Chapter 1

Psychology and Life

 Chapter 1 Main Points
What Makes Psychology Unique?

Critical Thinking In Your Life

The Evolution of Modern Psychology

What Psychologists Do

Psychology in Your Life

How to Use This Text

Recapping Main Points

What Makes Psychology Unique?
Definitions

Psychology
Scientific study of the
behavior of individuals
and their mental
processes
What Makes Psychology Unique?
Definitions

Scientific Method
Set of procedures used for
gathering and interpreting
objective information in a way
that minimizes error and yields
dependable generalizations
What Makes Psychology Unique?
Definitions

The observable
Behavior
actions by which an
organism adjusts to
its environment
 Goals of Psychology

Controlling
What Happens
Predicting Causal
What Will
predictions
Explaining Happen
What Happens
Describing What Scientific
Synthesis of predictions
Happens
information
Behavioral data
Levels of analysis
Objectivity vs.
Subjectivity
 Describing What Happens
Behavioral data are reports of
observations about behavior and
conditions under which they occur
Researchers choose an
Behavioral appropriate level of analysis
Measures of behavioral data must
Data be objective
 Explaining What Will Happen

Describe what happened

Descriptions

Seek to explain how behavior works

Internal factors
Genetic makeup, motivation, intelligence
External factors
Explanations Situational factors
 Explaining What Will Happen

Internal factors
Genetic makeup,
motivation, intelligence
External factors
Explanations Situational factors
 Predicting What Will Happen
Based on an understanding of the ways events
relate to one another
A Closer Look at Suggests what mechanisms link those events to
Scientific Prediction certain predictors

Specifies conditions under which behaviors will

A Closer Look at
change
Causal Prediction
 Controlling What Will Happen

Control means making

behavior happen or
not happen
Control Interventions
Evolution of Modern Psychology
Hermann Ebbinghaus

Psychologys Historical Foundations

One of first experimental
psychologists

Plato and Aristotle

Opposing views of how
mind works

John Locke
Nativist view

Immanuel Kant
Mental structures influence
world experiences
Evolution of Modern Psychology

Psychologys Historical Foundations

Ren Descartes
Human body can be
scientifically understood

Wilhelm Wundt
First formal experimental
psychology lab

Edward Tichener
Founded one of first U.S.
psychology labs

William James
Wrote Principles of Psychology
 Critical Thinking in Your Life
Does Comfort Food Really Give Comfort?

In the first study, why might the researchers have

kept their sample to just one sex?
With respect to the researchers theory, why
would chicken soup not be comfort food for
everyone?

See page 6 in your text.

Evolution of Modern Psychology

School of
Structuralism Elements of mind
Introspection

All human mental

experience can be
understood as Wilhelm Wundt
combination of Edward Titchener
simple elements or
events
Evolution of Modern Psychology

Max Wertheimer
Gestalt Organized wholes
Psychology Alternative to
Structuralism
Evolution of Modern Psychology

School of Minds with a

Functionalism purpose and a
property
William James

Function of mind John Dewey

and behavior in American
organisms Functionalism and
interactions with Progressive
environment Education
Legacy of These Approaches

Similarities of Both created

intellectual context in
Structuralism and which psychology can
Functionalism flourish
Women as Pioneering Researchers

Mary Whiton Calkins

First female president of APA

Margaret Flay Washburn

First female PhD in psychology (1894); President of the APA

Helen Thompson Wooley

Researched sex differences

Leta Stetter Hollingsworth

Researched sex differences, religious experience, and intelligence
Women as Pioneering Researchers

Today more
women than
men are
receiving PhDs
in psychology

Diversity, Diversity, Diversity.

Comparison of Seven Perspectives on
Psychology
Perspectives on Psychology

Psychodynamic Key Figure: Sigmund

perspective Freud

Behavior is explained in
terms of inherited
Focus is on the
instincts, biological
unconscious
drive, and attempts to
resolve conflicts
Perspectives on Psychology

Behavioral Key Figures: John

perspective Watson, B.F. Skinner

Primarily concerned
with observable
behavior that can be
objectively recorded
Perspectives on Psychology

Humanistic Key Figures: Carl Rogers,

perspective Abraham Maslow

Emphasizes an individuals
inherent capacity for
Self-actualization making rational choices
and developing to
maximum potential
Perspectives on Psychology

Key Figures: Noam

Cognitive
Chomsky, Jean
perspective
Piaget

People act, or
Human thought
behavior occurs,
and the processes
because people
of knowing
think
Perspectives on Psychology
Focuses on the
functioning of the genes,
Biological perspective
brain, nervous system,
and endocrine system

Behavior is explained in
terms of underlying
physical structures and
biochemical processes
Perspectives on Psychology

Evolutionary Key Figures:

perspective Charles Darwin

Importance of
behavioral and
Natural selection
mental
adaptiveness
 Perspectives on Psychology

Cross-cultural
differences in the
Sociocultural
causes and
perspective
consequences of
behavior
 Psychology in Your Life
In what ways do psychologists participate in
the legal system?

Take two minutes to brainstorm with the

person next to you and see how many ways
you can identify.

See Table 1.2 on page 14 for additional ideas.

What Psychologists Do
Engage in
psychological
inquiry

Apply Formulate
psychological questions to
principles be researched

Conduct
various forms
of research
Distribution of Degrees to Subfields of
Psychology
Work Settings of Psychologists
How to Use This Text
Study Strategies
How to Use This Text
Study Techniques
 Recapping Main Points
What Makes Psychology Unique?

Critical Thinking In Your Life

The Evolution of Modern Psychology

What Psychologists Do

Psychology in Your Life

How to Use This Text

Recapping Main Points